Place, ideological mobility and youth negotiations of gender identities in urban Botswana

Abstract

This article explores the gendered implications of rapid urbanization in Botswana's capital city, Gaborone, through the perspectives and performances of urban youth. Focus groups and follow-up interviews were conducted to gain access to Batswana youth's distinct position at the forefront of change. We argue that competing place-based gender scripts operate simultaneously within the city limits, dictating specific, and sometimes competing, forms of masculinity and femininity. While the gender script grounded in rural Botswana aligns with conventional notions of a public/private divide, the gender script originating in Gaborone emphasizes female financial independence and may concurrently render male identities ambiguous. The research reveals that urban youth negotiate their own gender identities by adopting a combination of strategies: conforming to a prevailing gender script, challenging an established gender script or hybridizing aspects of either gender script. The empirical findings are valuable in their exploration of the effects of place (e.g. the city) and mobility upon gender relations given the astonishing rates of urbanization within Southern Africa.